248 CORONEL AND THE FALKLANDS 1914: Duel in the South Atlantic

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Upon the outbreak of WWI, the British Royal Navy was deployed globally, whilst the Imperial German Navy was concentrated in two areas - Home Waters and Tsingtao, the home port of the Admiral von Spee's crack East Asia Cruiser Squadron. As Spee made his way to the Chilean port of Valparaiso, he met the British 4th Cruiser Squadron in the Battle of Coronel. The antiquated British warships proved no match for Spee's modern cruisers. It was the first naval defeat suffered by the Royal Navy in over 100 years.

When news reached London, panic reigned and the Royal Navy sent the HMS Inflexible and HMS Invincible to lead the force against Spee, who had entered the Atlantic and headed for the Falkland islands. Spee was unaware that amongst the ships opposing him were two modern battlecruisers that outclassed any of his own squadron's ships. Given the presence of Inflexible and Invincible, the result of the battle had an inevitable outcome and after several hours hard combat, Spee's ships were defeated.